Hey guys, welcome to another episode of Eating While Broke. I'm your host, Coleen Witt, and today we have very special guest comedian, writer, actor, producer. And the best part I have to add, well it's not the best part, but the part that intrigues me the most that I did not know is puppeteer Ay and I like, literally when he said puppeteer, I was like, yeah, is that what I think it is? Yeah, So I'm very excited to have a comedian CP in the building.
What's going on? But thank you all for having me. Man. First of all, I'm a big fan of the show, believe it or not, like because I'm greedy to know what everybody else be eating, you know what I'm saying, And it's like, man like, so I'm excited to be here and bring my little dish.
Yeah, you're like really rolling out the cooking part of this dish before you announce what the dish is. I will have to I do want listeners to know I actually tried to get CP from the concept of this show. I think I tried to get you, So it has
to have been almost two years to get you. Just to let you know, and then I had to tap the husband and be like, come on, man, come on man, you know, and then I think one day we're having a bad day and he's like shot me a text like you see, I reached out to see pe for you, and I was like.
He did, he did? He was like me and my wife. Man, he ran down the man. I'm familiar with that. I just I just it was, you know, I'm excited reaching out to me, man, But I'm excited to be here too.
I was really And then I stayed on top. Did you notice? I was like, you're gonna be here, You're gonna be here. I tried to guilt you in two I don't know if you caught that.
Yeah.
I tried to throw it a little bit manipulation on the last.
Nah, I was gonna be I just came off the road. So the date was perfect. I was, I was, I set it time to be here. So I'm here.
I'm excited to have you. So what are you going to be cooking me today?
I call this my shrimp fried ramen noodles. Okay, all right now, this dish man, I was, you know, this is like when I first started cooking, right, It's like one of the things that I used to practice cooking, because noodles give you like a good base, and so you could like doctor them up and learn how to you know, like really set your taste buds off with noodles. Really was noodles and eggs, so like different kind of alets and different kind of noodles was like how I
learned how to put stuff together. And you could use that kind of technique on any food. Yeah, you know what I'm saying, Just you know, you gotta have a base and a way to season it up.
So yeah, when you said ramen, I usually actually, anytime I guess is romen because it is the number one broke to broke dish uh in period. So every time romy comes up, I'm like, unless you're doing something crazy with it, is not welcome on the show. Come try again, give me another dish. But I was really I had a low bar set for you in my mind, and then you came here and you're pulling seasonings and you're choosing sauces, and I said, oh, snap, he's really about
to cook for me. So this is this is legit. So since it's legit, move on up out to see it.
Get in the kitchen. All right, all right, So what I like to do is I like to start with my little bass so like I'm my little shrimp sauce.
Right, so I do like you don't start boiling the water versus.
Well, yeah, I guess I can't start boiling the water. My bad. This is an electric stuff I usually got to Yeah, so it's the top.
Yeah, you know what you're doing. Just so you know my history on the show. People know this is I burned guest dishes. So if I give too much and put your welcome to shut me up, yeah, because I'll be like nah, nah, it should be good, and they'd be like, nah, it's burning. So now I like try to not get involved in the cooking process.
Okay, so this you know, like okay, so let me let me back you up. My dad was a chef in like like strip clubs and like uh like bars and ship back in the day, right he was. He was a nigga making the steak bites and the you know what I'm saying, you know, the little wings and stuff. And then my mother is a caterer. And so my mom caters to this day and she is a pastry chef for uh some of the major casinos downtown in Detroit. She actually just retired.
Are both your parents own Detroit?
Yes? Wow.
First of all, this is why this host cooking process of your life snuck up on me, because you had secret aces in the hole. You had your parents right now. Did they meet because they were both into cooking?
No, they met when they were thirteen.
Oh wow, they've been together like their whole lives.
Uh, they've been they've been known each other the whole They're not together. Oh yeah, yeah, but you know they've been you know, yeah, they were kind of like really good friends, you know what I'm saying. Of course they were a boyfriend and girlfriend back in the day. But then also you know, they they were just young, so they went through that whole you know, just trying to find me, you finding you, you know, but they made me and I was pretty dope. Now I'm gonna I got the butter going.
I like how you use a lot of butter. Yeah, that's my type of.
Well, yeah, this butter is gonna be the base. So you know, in this sauce, we don't just use the ray of noodle packet saucecye. That's the thing. We know we're not worried about that that packet sauce. Yeah, yeah, this is our this is our sauce. I'm putting some onions in this butter. Start getting these onions to saute. Okay, someone provided some excellent corn. I'm gonna start doing this corn. Yes that I'm gonna wait to add the corn because I went to, uh, I don't want no corn in my shrimp.
Just so y'all know, I was the one that added the corn. Uh Cep set Cep said vegetables that I just said, oh, that must mean corn, and he was like corn. I'm at onions and I was like, oh.
Okay, I'm adding a little bit of garlic powder just to this. I'm gonna have some missed garlic too, but I'm gonna add some creole seasoning.
Okay.
So now this is this is when I called this a broke dish. This is just what I was making. You know, my mom was at work. Uh you know. It was certain stuff that she would trust me to cook without burning the house down, right, the stuff that I was allowed to mess with. And I was you know, the noodles, the little pepper in there.
But you were making ramen noodles like this when you were a kid.
Yeah, after a while, I started like, you know, the more the shrimp, uh whatever we had. So if you know, like my mom would make like her little shrimp Alfredo and stuff like that. She had a great poster she used to make. Before all the hood rats was making it as they number one, This mom Deuce was doing it for real. Get this girl. I can hear this fresh girl that's gonna be fire on this shrimp and
so well. She would have these little bags of these little shrimp, you know, and I would sneak a couple and you know, yeah, like make my little I love shrimp fried rice, right, but I hate it making rice. I still do to this day.
I hate making.
I hate making rice.
I don't know why that it alone.
I like to manipulate, you know what I'm saying. I like, I like to cook, and.
I hate making. You know what I hate making worse than rice is the jasmine rice. I'd be so nervous. I'm gonna mess it up.
Man. My wife is that's her. That's her department, the rice. So when they want rice, I'm adding this shrimp. These are the little baby shrimp. These are little shrimp abortions. I don't even know where these shrimps. Shrimp never staw the light a day, you know what I'm saying. These trimp ain't lived with fifteen to twenty minutes.
I don't even know how they devein. Those little baby shrimps.
They ain't got no vein. These are shrimps.
I mean, like peel it and stuff.
Ohous, some little shrimp embryo. These ain't never.
So you up in here, saltage. This is definitely not what I imagined eating ramen with you would look like. Really, And the fact that you're saying that we're not gonna use the ramen package.
We are going to use the ramen pack. We're not gonna submerse it in the water. We're gonna get this going. It's gonna be almost like a I don't want to call it like a roof, but you know, just like a little base. And we're gonna add water to this, and they add the season into this, then add our noodles over.
Here, so it's gonna be like dry, almost.
Gonna be dry. Yeah, exactly. Not so much.
You like Chinese food.
I love China.
I love Chinese.
We had a Chinese food restaurant on seven Mile Telegraph called China One. M h. I'm pretty sure it wasn't authentic Chinese food, but man, that shit was fied.
Is it as good as New York Chinese?
Yeah? No, I think that the best Chinese food I've ever had was in Saint Louis. Really. Yeah, they got the best Chinese food out here.
Really.
DC got some good Chinese food too, But York louis New York. Problem. Like, man, y'all, just y'all don't ever have to leave there. Y'all think everything y'all.
Do is the best pizza. We got, the best Chinese, we got the best everything.
Detroit Stole pizza is fired.
I've had it. I'm be honest.
Yeah, I guess.
Yeah, but it must be a New York thing, because I promise you ain't nothing messing with our pizza. Every time I go to Detroit, they try to say, oh, no, I'm sorry, I wasn't impressed with your pizza.
I'm gonna let this come to a little simmer, I will say.
Though, when I go to Detroit, my ignorant self is still obsessed with eight miles, so I'm always like, show me, show me, where eight mile is and he'll just point and be like, there it is.
In there too. Get that going for real?
Up, So take me back to like what's going on during this ram and time? You're at home cooking alone?
Man? So I'm an only child, so I don't have any siblings, right, I'm coming home from school.
Single parent, household.
Single parent man. My mom was single, you know.
But both parents were in your life.
Yeah, but you know, like you know, my dad was doing his thing. He was across town. He was in a place called Brightmore. I'm making this dish. I'm in sixth grade right at this point, I'm walking to school or taking the city bus. You know, I got a food stamp. I go to the corner store, give me a twenty five cent pack of gum or a twenty five cent bag of Flaming Hot Cheetos.
You could do that with food stamps. Back then, I thought food stamps was only was limited more than because that was.
The real stamps. And then you would get a seventy five cent real back. Put fifty cent on the bus. You know what I'm saying, I'm gonna get some of this corner here. Do you smell that it smells good.
He secretly been hanging on the corner, so you should have seen he put a little bit of corn in there, like a like a mouthful.
But I tell you about corn in our next podcast that we do. I don't want to spoil everybody, you know what I'm saying.
And so you you making food as a sixth grader.
Home watching Power Rangers, Okay, you know what I'm saying, rushing home to see what's about to happen.
I love Powers Range was so dope that.
It was like our real soap opera. You know what I'm saying.
So at this point, do you even know that you're into comedy yet? What's going on in your life?
One? In my life, I've changed schools a lot. Well, you got a single mom. You know she didn't she didn't buy a house or like I order, we were renting a lot. So I mean changing schools, changing neighborhoods, you know what I'm saying. Trying that down a little bit. It's starting to staw tell a little hard, changing hoods, changing rules to the hood. And so you know, being funny was kind of like a way to kind of like make some friends and kind of getting motherfuckers off
my back. You feel me like, you know, just like you Tray, we don't have a lot of gangs as it pertains to like bloods and cribs is just like neighborhoods, you know what I'm saying, And so you know, you shit, I was. I was new to every neighborhood and so that was you know, that was kind of like a.
Was it like a more natural protective mechanism or was it just like a did you like did you know you were you were also being funny to survive?
Well, I started to like being funny, right, I started to like what it got me? Like, you know, girls was laughing, and you know, it was just it was people wanted me to be in the friend group. Hey CP, come well, Chris Pole, come sit with us, Cause I wasn't CPA, Chris Pole, come sit with us. You know, da da da he funny man. I got fourth hour for him. And it just became like, you know, then I started roasting people because people was into that. They
really wanted to see me roast people. And I started to kind of like almost like you know, I just learned how to how to kind of fall into that acceptance for myself, like I liked how it felt. I liked how it felt when people thought I was funny, and you know, I would I would start, people will start saying like, man, you should be a comedian even when he was kids, right, and it's like that's like positive reinforcement. That's why I don't let nobody speak bullshit
over my kids. You know what I'm saying, Like, you know, it's only possibilities, right, you know, I they and gymnastis you could be a gymnast. Because it was little stuff like that that was like I'm asking my mom, you know, for like Richard Pryor tapes and Eddie Murphy tapes. She's so excited because that's her level of comedy. She likes that. So me and her and my dad, we would you know, I would watch it with my dad. I watch it with my mom. I would get tapes for Christmas. You know.
But this is while you were young.
I was young, young, nine years old, and so because I first started being funny in like fourth grade, that was that was when it started to really hit. Like that's when I started being like ooh, I was at a new school. I had just left left a private school and went to a public school, so the curriculum was like super easy, and it was just like I got enough time to be fooling around and I started making kids laugh a lot.
But you weren't would you consider itself like a class clown funny or were you just.
Like so, I wanted to be class clown bad right? Like I remember, I remember one time I went to this new school for eighth grade. It was a school for the gift that we have this meat test in Michigan in the seventh grade. And I took my meat test and I got a ninety eight percent on I was super smart, you know. And so they moved me
to a school kind of like for the gifted. And I was there for one year and I won class clown, and I was just it was just important to me that I got a class clown, because you know, it's just like you hear about the mock election, and that's what you want to be. You know what I'm saying. I wanted to be class clown. Looking back, that's stupid, you know what I'm saying a little bit.
Why do you think so?
I mean, well, I get it, I trust me.
I was a class I was voted class loudest, but yeah, basically class clown. I mean, all the teachers signed my yearbooks like please, whatever you do, don't get into the entertainment business and go to college. And of course I didn't really take their advice, but whatever, so I think they knew. I went to college for like two years and then I dropped out. But I dropped out to pursue a company that I was building.
At the beause. You know how you like some of your onions to be a little crisp.
I like all my onions to be grilled, but mixing.
With the with the so you had a little crunch to them too.
That's what the corn is for.
The corn is not for the crunk.
The corn has an extra texture to him.
I'm telling you, how do these shrimp smell to you?
Everything smells good. I see a lot of white onion in there, though, so I'm nervous for you. By the way, I'm very honest about the dish. So if it's like okay, wun be like okay.
I feel I was in sixth grade, God Jesus Christ, great, but.
I thought you could make us now.
I make this now with bigger shrimp. You know what I'm saying, and a different kind of ions. But this is all a sauce. Still don't remember. I still got to pour some water in there.
I love how authentically real you're keeping this dish. So I'm judging sixth grade CP right now.
Yeah, this is this is what he was doing. Okay about this little cholesterol he was so?
Okay, So is your parents supporting the idea of you wanting to become a comic or are you voicing it yet.
Officially supporting it? For sure? Okay, I'm starting to add.
You sound like my daughter when you said that's what we say in my house all the time.
Yeah. Yeah, my grand dad used to say that that's my mom. Pick that ship up.
So they're supporting it. You're watching the the tapes of all the iconic comedians. Is there any particular comedian that you identified with the most at that time?
Growing up? Ed Murphy at that time? Right, I think that Richard Pryor was a little freer than I think I was ready to be at that time. You know what I'm saying, Just you know, as a young person, I'm like, what the hell is going on? He talking about all kind of crazy shit? You know what? I'm saying. So it was like, you know, Eddie Murphy was cool though, Like you know what I'm saying, Like women wanted to fuck Eddie Murphy and dudes wanted to be him at
the same time. You dudes, we wasn't really hating on Eddie, you know what I'm saying.
Look like it's gonna be wet, right, But yeah, it looks extra liquidity, almost like a soup. But but you said there's gonna be just noodles in there, So this is right. Okay, So what's the next milestone for you? Middle school? High school? What age do you actually leave Detroit.
College? Oh?
Did you go to college?
Yeah? I went to college.
Okay, Now you go to college. What do you go to college for? If you were trying to be a comedian?
Well, that's the thing, like, you don't actually think you can be a comedian, right, it doesn't start like that.
So you had you done any shows or anything before college? So you just went straight from high school to college.
I went straight from high school, toky, I had done know comedy shows. I would do stuff in school, right, I was a part of the drama club, right, so I would like, you know, do plays in school and they would be hilarious. You know, people come down for the for the assembly and they watch them. You know I was killing them in those you know, I was in the drama.
At that point. Did you know what it would take to be a comedian?
Not at all? And as a matter of fact, like I said, I wasn't even I didn't win class clown in twelfth grade, which hurt my feelings. My friend still laughing at me to this day. I was really hurt. Like I got home from school and I was like punching the air, like, uh, like he would get a junior Are you serious?
It was that important to.
That important to me? But you know I wasn't. I was in all honors classes, and you know those kids, they saw more in me than to be class clown. I'm like, fuck, y'all, I want to be class clown.
But what did did you get voted something?
Know?
Did you get like.
Class voted anything? Oh?
Yeah, you went home pissed.
I was pissed, Like wow, but I was cool with everybody, but I wasn't best dressed, you know what I'm saying. Like my mom, you know she was, she was doing her best. You know what I'm saying like, I mean, one time she bought me this, this race car jacket. It was really popular back in the day, the race car. They'd be like cheerios and you know what I'm talking about. First day I got it word to school, a nigga robbed me. What gunpoint?
Gunpoint at what you were in high school?
Chool? Oh?
Yeah, Detroit's dangerous, man. I'm sorry. Like even even like I'll watch like the Detroit News channel on social media, which is probably the wrong thing to watch. But all you see is like the Coney Island horror stories and stuff.
Add a little bit of hot sauce.
Mmm, did were you afraid to tell your mom about the jacket?
A little bit? I'm sorry. We got a few different kinds of hot sauces and a damn we just use a little bit of this about you. I usually use Frank's hot sauce back in the day.
Oh oh, is that why you were looking at that? By the way, uh, if CP ever goes to your house, he does check expiration dates on all food, just so you know.
We be we be out here killing ourselves in old ass peanut butters and ship We don't need that. We check your day.
You don't die from that.
You know that right, got slow? You don't die that day.
My rule, as long as there's no mold and as long as you can eat around the mold, you're safe.
I know. That's old school. That's very old school. That's old school. That's like back when that's like famine. That's like you ever watched Walking Dead and they just walk up in somebody house and started taking their talent afs like any people died two years ago, you know what I'm saying. But it's like at that point.
You would actually think that though, what about that they died two years ago before you take the tilt off.
I'm just saying, it's like, god damn, you ain't check the date. Like you know what I'm saying. Like my granddad used to have batteries from the eighties, Like you throw them as in there, like they need batteries about to blow up.
Yeah, I come from that era. I'm one of those people that like, maybe we can stick the batteries in the freezer and maybe they'll live longer.
So you see this disc right here.
It looks great, by the way, So this is just.
Some this is like this is what a sixth grader does in trying to learn how to cook, and luckily my mom and my dad were cool enough to let me try a little shit like this. Now I would do something like I would even put a little bit of cheese in this, like some gouda or whatever we had.
I was thinking you were gonna say, parmesan.
Oh a parmesan for show. Oh okay, okay, do we have any permis on here?
I think so you're hilarious. We're gonna throw the commercial because CP needs parmesan and we're back.
So you're like I said, I usually we use parmesan, and that's why I brought some right here. Uh and it's fresh too today. Say it's twenty twenty four, so this is we can be heavily. You're whole heavy handed with this.
I love that you be checking the dates. You are heavy handed for real with it.
I mean, I don't play when they're kind of my table at Ali Lawdon, I'd be like, may you aren't finna get tired, bros, I'm gonna have you streading that bitch until they turned to an eraser.
All right, you actually don't even like Olive Garden. Surprisingly you know you know what it is. It's because someone told me that Olive Garden they really just reheat the food. I heard they don't cook there.
I heard that too.
So Ever, since I heard that, like every dish to me, all I keep thinking is microwaveable TV dinners, and I just don't mess with microwaveable TV di.
I didn't put a lot of house sauce on here, and we'll let you sauce it to you. So your liking, thank you?
Oh this looks good. Hey, guys, this is this is his this you know bad. When we first started, we used to have the overhead cam. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, it used to be on top of My team would hate me every time they'd have to put it in. They'd be like, I hate this part. I'd be like, we need it. We need the overhead shot.
Necessary to get that overhead shot porn created that. It looks good.
I could see where the baby shrimps should be the big shrimps.
But you know what, you wouldn't have as many. You have about five six shrimp in there. You feel me you should have done the whole thing shrimp in there. I thought about that, but then it would have just been like.
Ricey noodlely shrimp for the taste test one.
Yeah, takes a little kick in there. It's a little kick in there.
This actually doesn't remind me of Ramen at all, because you completely transitioned it. I don't know if that's because I was sucking on the cop drop, but this does not remind me of Ramen. The only thing that reminds me of Ramen is the noodle. I'm impressed.
It's like a little shrimp fried rice passed me Parson juice. Ooh, there you go. Get heavy handed with it.
Yeah, when it comes to butter and cheese, I'm heavy handed.
That's that. New York and y'all love pasta.
We love Yeah, I mean we love y'all love cards.
Yeah, I was gonna New York is like a card. You go to New York you want to homemade cereal? Like god damn yep. It taste a girl.
They can hear this is delicious, you can. You know, if we were trapped in a hut, homeless, I'll be your little bunker pal.
I appreciate it. You know what I'm saying, Ship bat Watch Power Rangers. You know what I'm saying.
I think there's a chance I put too much parmesan on it, but.
You change the texture.
No, I think I just took a bite of too much, but this is delicious. I would have ever thought to add.
Onions the corn. I mean, you know, I can barely.
There's like three pieces of corn.
Is a favorite GMO.
GMO, Okay, I'm over it.
Back to your business.
So what do you go to college for.
I go to college for initially for veterinary science. Right.
You wanted to be a vet I.
Wanted to be a zoologist, right. I love animals. I still love animals to this day. And I got animals, and so I went to Michigan State and that's one of the biggest schools for that, a lot of agriculture and stuff like that. And then I saw that there was kids there who came from farms and stuff who was a lot more advancing and a lot more dedicated than I was. And I'm just a kid from the city who like cats and dogs and city and just like sticking their hand up Kyle's asses, you know what
I'm saying. I was like, whoa, this is too advanced for me. I just want to I want to see pit bulls, and you know what, I'm.
Saying, but you said a zoologists wouldn't didn't you expect to see some kind of foreign animals?
I did, But I think I just I was I was more romanticizing the idea that was cool. Put it like this, Mike Tyson, like tigers, right, he don't need to be no zoologist. I just need to get rich and get a tiger. That's all it bought down.
And you discovered that in college.
While in college, and I moved to engineering, right because my mom and my whole family, they worked at Chrysler and they always just to be like, man, the engineers make the most money and it don't have to do anything, so we want you to be that. I'm like, I guess I don't want to do nothing with my life. But I mean, you know what I'm saying, Like, so I tried engineering. I didn't like it.
That's a lot of math, right, yeah.
And a lot of just being a loan like engineers working loan a lot. So I was like, man, you know, I have some love for that. I have a little bit of engineering in me. You have a little bit of lawyer in me. I wanted to be a lawyer at some point. I didn't go to law or anything or pre law, but I found a digital media arts and technology like broadcast media, and I was like, this is it, like, you know, like learning how to do the camera work
and the editing and the lighting. Because I felt like I had the talent to be the talent and you can't teach that. But if I can learn everything else about the business, I can get my degree in that and at least put myself close enough to the game to be able to strike if I ever needed to be able to do it. So that's what I did. So I graduated super high up in my class, like top fifteen, like number twelve. It was a big deal.
From college.
That is a big deal, so used to from my college, not from the college that year, but from my specific major. I was one of the top fifteen students. I directed a movie that got into a film festival. You know. I did some stuff that I really fell in love with the business of show business. And then when I graduated, I started writing commercials. I started actually I was working in the mail room of an advertising agency, trying to work my way up to be a writer, and I
finally did it. And then I by that time I was doing comedy at night.
Oh you were actually going out and trying doing shows.
Because that time, I'm dealing with college.
And what was that experience for you? Like, was your first time up? Take me to your first time? Did you do good on your first time? Did you bomb?
I got a standing ovation my first time, and that's what That's what gave me, like a conference zero on an addiction to the that was like, ah, you know what I'm saying, so much so that the very next show I got, I bombed and it wasn't enough of a downer to quit to drown out the up. I'm like, nah, I still feel good and that last one fuck that. I'll figure it out. But yeah, I hadn't want to
do it my whole life. My mom came and she saw it was good for her to see it, and it was it was like, you know, every teacher like he talks too much, he jokes around too much, so it was everything. All of that was like it all came to like a c you know what I'm saying. I mean, And I'm sure she felt that. When I graduated college with all of those accolades, he was pretty
like ecstatic then, But this is something different. This is something like, you know, this is like our shit, Like my mom has a crazy sense of humor, Like you know what I'm saying, like this is what we do well.
I mean being a college graduate, how do you break to your mom that, okay, I graduated from college and broadcasting right and then, but a side note, I also I'm interested in doing stand up is a part of her having conversations with you, like, well, what are you gonna do for money? Because being in comedy, obviously there's like a broke phase right.
My grandparents where my granddad was, my aunts, everybody was concerned. My mom was kind of like, you know, she just I think she knew once I graduated college, it was like I did what I could do for them, you know what I'm saying. It was like, you know, whatever I do with my life, now, y'all gonna have to just roll with it. Like I graduated.
College, you did whatever their bars were for them, and now you get to do what you want from me.
I feel like that was the most responsible way to be a kid and pay them back for raising me. It was like, look, I did the thing, Like let me alone. I did the thing, and everybody can't do the thing, and everybody doesn't do the thing.
No, a lot of people don't.
And I was the president of my fraternity, but I gave them a lot to be proud of. But I needed something for me to be proud of myself, and you know, I had to. As long as my mom had my back, I was good. I think if my mom would have discouraged me, I could have quit. But my mom was like, you know, you can do it. My mom saw me get the stand in ovation my first time. She was there.
Oh, she was there on the first one. I was going to ask you what she had the first one or the second one.
She's at both?
Oh, she was at both. So then what was the conversation going home with her? And the only reason why I asked so much about your mom and your dad is because to me, it gives me a real full picture of who you are. But I'm just curious that conversation going home? You said it didn't from the second show, you didn't. It didn't kill it because the first one you did amazing.
Bo well she was. She asked me, are you sure this is what you want to do? Like she brought all my cousins and some of my aunts because I had killed so hard the first time. She was like, oh he's got it. Yeah, I gotta see that, you know, whatever they came. I don't drink, so people brought me drinks. I have fans. I murdered. Oh wow, like people who were at the broad Hey, man, oh you back man? This guy man, he good? What you drinking. I didn't know what I was drinking. I didn't drink. I'm like,
give me your hinde again. I saw the commercials. I didn't know, got fucked up off a brew and a half, went up there and forgot my jokes and I was just trying to roast people and it just was not funny. And the guy after there got up there and just allged me out in front of my family. You know. And this is back when, like I was, I've always ever since, ever since I pledged Kappa, my jeans got a little tighter like I like it to. You know, I was wearing nice fitted jeans before niggas was doing it.
You know what I'm saying. So Seven's and all of that. I was getting them tailored loud. You know what I'm saying. I was we was those guys. You know what I'm saying, so, look at this, Jeeves, he's gay as fun in front of my family, roasted me. I'm like, oh my god.
So your conversation with your mom going home? She starts to question, you know, whether this is something you you want to.
Right then, you know, I went up to her. How did I do? She's like, not good, not good? What happened to your jokes? What did you do?
Did she know that you had drank a little bit?
Nah? She just you know, she just you know, she's always been supportive, but that day.
You know, well, it's but I will say this, it's so important that she was honest with you in that moment versus the opposite. So that relationship, I can see why you trust her guidance because she can keep it real even when you know it doesn't make you feel that great.
Yeah, she tells me, I don't like that joke. Shit, you know what I'm saying, you know, with all due respect, but yeah, she uh, you know, she's always had my back about it. My dad is just so impressed with it.
It's like, wow, you know, do you feel like by letting your lights shine and pursuing and following the rules that they had guided do you feel like that allows them to let their light shine or other people's light shine.
Yeah, and it puts a lot of pressure on the other kids. And here in my family, I'm the oldest, so it frees them because now their parents can see that swinging for the fences could possibly get you everything right. But then also it's like, you know, Chris finished college and he did all you could.
You know, It's like they'd be like, why did you leave that bar so high?
Right? You know what I'm saying, Head out to my you know, my little cousins there. You know, they're geniuses. They did all that shit, They did their ship and you know, they got their big dreams and they're doing it. But I think that I made a sharp left for my family and they were like, oh wait a minute, somebody is doing something different, and you know, it's set it up.
And then also like I've been to Detroit, Uh that place I describe it. I don't even think you can describe Detroit. You really have to experience it because when I go there, I'm like, how does anyone see their way out? Outside of television? Would be like I could imagine the only way maybe sports, But but I'm just saying, like that environment is so there's like it's it's it's a weird thing to me. It's so unstable because like one block it's like houses, the next block it's a bomb.
Look like it hit it.
You know.
It's just I mean maybe if I grew up there, I would understand it more. But coming from bigger cities like New York and l A, I'm like, yo, how do you possibly see yourself getting out of Detroit?
It's very simple. You learn and not take anything for granted. I think that watching my kids grow up here in LA it's like, oh, they got it made. You know. They can leave their campus and go to lunch, or they can go outside and switch class asses. And like school was different. We were in the in the school building, you couldn't leave. It was like a like New York. I've seen New York schools like like a jail, like
a precine. Yeah. Yeah, you know, it's like it's cold, and you know, we don't have a lot of light shined on us, and so it's not a lot of attention on us. So the bad ship can excel, but the good ship can excel too.
Yeah. Well, I mean so many successful people that come out of Detroit. You have your uh, what's that Detroit a clothing line that's always very prominent. It's like Detroit over everything or something everybody. By the way, I've tried to get him on the show, so Tommy, yes, I've tried. Actually, I think I seen him when I was in Detroit and I had Darius pull over the car, like yo, I need to try to lock him in. But but yeah, you guys have had so many successful young entrepreneurs come
out of Detroit. I feel like Detroit is really making its own name for itself even.
Can I tell you some real shit. Yeah, we don't have a lot of old people in a way like New York. Y'all got a lot of old heads who are tied into the what it is. And Detroit is open, open, like our old people are not in the way of you know, you got a couple of little baby gatekeepers here and there trying to but it's like no, like this is Detroit is like young niggas can run this.
It feels like it. It feels like y'all are taking over.
And so if you're doing good, then you are able to connect with people who want to do business with Detroit. They they don't have to go through anybody. It's just you. You know what I'm saying, It's just you. They ain't got a highly ad DJ so and so or get the hook up through it. No, it's just you. And you know, ain't no middle man. All that bread is you, and all that shine is you. You know what I'm saying, Like, we are raised to be businessman and stand on business
whatever it is, whether it's street business, clothing business. You know, we show business. We stand on business as at a at a young age. You know what I'm saying, Like, you know, you got killers that's fourteen and fifteen years old, and so it's like, you know that means that you got people who have peers that are fourteen and fifteen year old killers. When I was in sixth grade, niggas was still in cars.
Yeah, well you said, even just hearing you got robbed a sixth gradeed like, no.
No, I got robbed in eleventh thro eleventh.
Grade at even eleventh grade at gunpoint is.
Walking to school, Yeah, walking to the school. So I was so excited to wear this jacket. Right. First of all, let me start out there. I had to beg. My mom jacket was like three seventy five, which is like at that time, four thousand dollars.
Yeah to a brew one hundred and seventy five years dollars.
Right, My mom, she wanted me to be you know, she wanted me to be swaggy, you know what I'm saying. You know, you know women like a kind of certain dude, and you know they you have a son, you want him to But she just couldn't afford a lot, and I started to know not to ask for a lot, you know what I'm saying. I just I just knew, like you know, you know, my homeboys told come back with the new JS, and man, that's cool. Man, you know, it's just not my time, you know what I'm saying.
You know, I had to be responsible. I was the man at the house. I was heating up the car in the morning. I had to move the car sometime twelve years old and moving the car for her to go to work. And I was still walk to school. And so you know, she bought me this jacket. It was a big deal for her because I was a responsible kid and she wanted to do something to show me that, you know what I'm saying, I appreciate it. Yeah, you know what I'm saying.
You know, she's keeping up and exactly.
And I had to Chevrolet when it was black said Chevrolet on the front. So the dudes they had passed us. I noticed my h we walking and they kind of like a half a block up there, pulling to the like a driveway to block us. So that's weird. They blocking them. Him go around the car, go around the car to dude, and the passing the sea gets out, the car comes around faces me. It was so crazy, you know what it is. My homeboy just kept walking. It was almost like he was talking to me. I stopped.
He just kept talking to me like he just kept walking. I'm sorry. And my man put a put a little nickel plated a little like a little twenty two twenty five. It wasn't done crazy. He was a dweb. You know what I'm saying in my stomach, man, I mean me blasted asked for his jacket, nigga. I'm like, oh, man, I was scared. I had had my big Time or CD in the pocket. I was big on cast money
back then. My big timer CD uh in the pocket, and I had my house keys in the in the in the other pocket, and I just remember like taking my jacket off and shaking it. Some of my house keys came out on the ground, so how to pick them up? Because I went to Nigga to have my keys and you know what I'm saying. And then I just gave it, Nigga my jacket.
Did you lose the CD?
Of lost the CD? And never got that bad? You know? Of course I downloaded it later and uh they they got in the car and dipped and I called back up to Rob and Nigga, I just got robbed? Is that for real? Yeah, nigga, you know what I'm saying.
Soup black and White, Rob Robins hilarious shout outs to Robot Rob.
And so Rob or not.
Being robbed?
Well, I mean, what was he gonna do though, you know what I'm saying. And then you also learned to mind your business, right. I could have been selling drugs and my man wanted to buy something or whatever, you know, not to pay attention to people's stuff, you know what I'm saying. So robbing no whole ass. Now I'm gonna give him the benefit of the doubt and say he ain't no you know.
And so that was nice how you had his back just now.
And so I I got to my consulor's office, who at the time, my conflor was my cousin, because I remember I told you that that I went to that school for the gifted and I won class clown in eighth grade. That school allowed me to get into a like a gifted high school called cast Tech, like one of the schools of choice in Detroit. But when I got in there, I'm fresh off the class clown campaign and I'm going dumb pulling the fire alarm. I'm dancing.
Oh you're pulling fire alarms. Oh my god, they didn't invote to class clown.
I had to know. This is in ninth grade, right, But it's a different school I got. I got kicked out of that school. So my mom was very hurt. And so that's another thing. You buy me this jacket, man, that you forgive me for getting kicked out of that school and embarrassing the family. You know, it's a big deal to go to that school and everybody telling everybody, you know, you know Chris up in cash now, Yeah, we just trying to keep his grades. I was in
that bitch I had sixty five absences. I was like, I was leaving class, going to different seniors. So the seniors be like, come on, that's the guy that can roast real good. Pull me into the lunch. I'm roasting in lunch. I didn't realize I'm doing it every day for months, right, and so kicked out. I had to go to this hood school since why I got ribbed at the hood school, and so you know, it's just I have to beg my mom to you know, I'm
gonna be safe. And then I wasn't safe, and so I had to go to my concert's office and call my mom and tell her she was hysterical, which that kind of made me sad, like because I how mad and sad she was, and to feel like she felt helpless, like dang, somebody could have shot you for some shit I bought you and I know better, and I didn't trust my judgment and I let you think you know everything. People are killing people for these clothes. I'm like, fuck,
you know what I'm saying. So and then you know, it's just I just remember, like, right, man, I'm gonna start buying my own shit, like I don't want her to be, you know, like, once I felt it, I'm all right, cool, I don't need to be asking my mom for shit. I'm sixteen, you know what I'm saying, Like, I got a job. I got I started working that Victoria's.
Secret as your first sixteen year old.
No, no, no, my first sixteen hundred was a target.
Okay, but how'd you end?
Me and my boy Marcus, We went to the mall and so we just like, you know, let's feel like some applications and shit. And so we feel in our applications and uh, we go off in victorious because this is a young girl and at the desk, so we're going to like, what up, what's up with you? We flirting heavy widders. He's like, y'all stupid. What I'm like, We're trying to we feel like, you know, She's like, we get out of here. I'm trying to get a job,
just saying it. Oh yeah, she gave with both applications, y'all fell out applications then, and then so we had to interview, like a couple of days later we went and so Marcus went to the interview too, and I guess he couldn't believe it because He's like, Nigga, I'm not being to work here for real now I've been working this bit.
Yeah, I was gonna say, it's actually pretty smart for a guy. I never even thought of that.
I was all I did was stock the lotions. So that would be in a bad listen to the radio and they'd be like, we need pairless pair and uh strawberry yogurt cream and I run out with just litt the lotion or that you know, we're getting low. I was season those over the holiday break, so I would stock the shelves, and you know, I just I started dressing a little like I had my little Gucci loafers and you know what I'm saying, Like I was the plug, Like you know, I had the little hookup. I had
a little discount. You know what I'm saying. I saw some shit in there that I was like, oh my god, my eyes. You know what I'm saying, you know, the old lady titties and shit, and you know what I'm saying it just like you know, I saw girls in there getting fitted for their first brawl, like girls I knew, like we the same age. I'm like, oh shit, she
getting them titties fitted you know what I'm saying. I saw like pooring stars and strippers coming in there getting stuff that they would order from the catalog, and then we get sent to the store, you know what I'm saying. So they be in a back trying it on, and that shit be looking like God, dangn I'm a little young nigga. You know what I'm saying, Like, oh shit, you know what I'm saying. You know, it was a
cool job, man. I would bring stuff with my aunties and my mom for Christmas, you know what I'm saying, the little sets and stuff for like the perfume. I worked there for like six seven months.
Hilarious. Let's fast forward back to you deciding to move forward with your comedy career. How long did it take for you to start actually materializing it into like a career that could fund your life.
So I was coming to work late every day because I was out late at night at the clubs, and I had been doing some big shows around the city, and my reputation was just getting out and I was really smart, and so that comedy was coming across. It was just I was a young, fresh comic, you know, and so.
And you were staying in Detroit doing clubs. Not you didn't leave yet, right, I was in Detroit.
I had never left. I had never been.
You never went to New York or anything to test down?
Okay no. And so I just remember, uh like coming to work one day and I had just sold this commercial for Walmart and it was like a big time Christmas commercial and everybody was excited about it. So you know my boss who now his name was the Tabio Samuels. He now runs Oh I know him.
He was on our show.
Yeah, he's the CEO of the Vault. But the Tabio was my boss back then. Oh you were at the Global.
Okay, yeah, he told us about that agency.
Okay, so a lot of stars came out of the agency too. Just they were really good at finding young, uncultivated talent and they just grew us. So the Tabio told me, like, look, we lost Scope. You know, the recession was hitting in hard. It's like, oh a oh nine, we lost Scope from Walmart. They don't need our team to be this big. We need to let somebody go.
It's not you, because you're killing it, but we also know that you don't do one be here and you starting to blow up in your comedy thing or whatever. You can save somebody else's job. Right. It was a girl on my team who just got married, you know. Other people was you know, had kids and shit, and I'm like, shit, i can get out of here, and they're gonna give me a nice severance package and then they're gonna let me get full unemployment. So for like two and a half years, you know, I walked out
of the area with a nice goodbye package. Plus I was getting paid like eight hundred bucks every two weeks. I just started blowing up, traveling to colleges and I would open up for like Willis Kleefood here, and I just started I started like making a name for myself. Wow.
So that two and a half years brought you time to just focus, just focus on that. By the time the two and a half years were up, with dedicated focus, it was enough to support yourself.
Yeah, by the time I'm gonna tell you like this, So the two and a half years, by the time the two and a half years come up, now I'm a new dad. Right. The last day that I got my last check, my viral videos shit Detroit Niggas say went viral and from that day forward, comedy been paying all my bills.
Wow.
From that day forward, it was like Valentine's Day twenty twelve. From that day forward, it was like I went viral on world Star and YouTube and back then I was a big, super huge deal.
And then were you receiving checks from those videos or were you.
Just yeah, I was getting tests from those videos and I was just getting booked. But then also, you know, I wasn't a one trick pony, so I started doing a puppeteering around that time. So I came out with Reggie Bow, and Reggie Bow was a puppet that was representing regular Weed at the time, and so it was just something else to go viral on besides the shit Detroit nigga say. And then it became like, oh, this
guy has stuff. And then producers from Hollywood started calling me, and that's when I started selling TV shows wow.
As and then you're so as a producer slash.
Or yes, wowah producer slash writer. And then of course I would act on them if they you know, I shot a couple of pilots and you know, they would go or they wouldn't go. You know what I'm saying. It depends, Uh, nothing really went, because even when it did go, it would get canceled. It's just how the game goes. But that money was enough to you know, you get into this producing game and you're selling shows.
First of all, you got to have thick skin, and you got to have more than one idea because if your idea doesn't go, you dead in the water. Right, So, you know, I learned how to have thick skin. I learned how to maneuver this IP. I use IP like real estate. You know, some shows I'm gonna fix up and I'm gonna want to live in. It's gonna be want to be my show. Other shows you just sell it and then somebody else's in, you know, and it's just like that's where I built up my family is
that's what we sustain off of. You know what I'm saying was that it was the shows. Right. Well, now I understand.
Now you during those twenty a half years you start to get out of Detroit. It sounds like, right, what was that pivotal moment where well, I guess when you left, you knew that there was no turning back, right.
No, So, like what happened was, you know, during that two years I started really getting my name hot in Detroit, and then I started doing the viral video and I did that one viral video. At the end of that two years after that, I was really hot in Detroit. Now I'm famous in Detroit. Right now I'm starting to do the radio. So now I became a radio personality first. So that's what got me to all the celebrities and
everybody would come through the city. I would be able to have a one on one with them on the air. And then my good friend Tone Foster, he I asked him, like, Yo, give me your ride to Chicago. Bro, I didn't have a car. They give me right of Chicago. Man. They got this auditions for this show called Empire, and they sent me down there for auditions. My boy drove me down there, did the audition, and I got the role, and I had to move to Chicago, so I had
to leave the radio station. So now I'm living in Chicago shoot an Empire, and I'm going up in the Chicago comedy scene. And now I'm blowing up in that scene. And it's like, oh shit, like I'm good in two states, Like I'm good in Yeah, I'm good in Illinois. So now it's like well, in the middle of that, you know, producers are still reaching out to me. I ended up selling the show.
How do you get on the radar where they're saying and you're able to sell shows because you booked a role as an actor? But where do you Where does the pivot come in where you get the opportunity to sell a show.
So it's a crazy bunch of ways to do it.
But back then, there wasn't a huge amount of online YouTube creators, right, and so the ones that were out there had had a spotlight on them because you know, they were trying to show the the power of this new medium, like you can go to YouTube and you can So they were scouring YouTube for these guys, and so I just was one of those guys who was you know, they liked my mix of I'm doing the you know, the skid that I'm doing another skit, you know, me and my boy Ron Taylor doing the skit that
I'm doing a skit with Darius and Jeff Horse and all these guys. And then I did Reggie bo and then that had them like, wait, he has a puppet, And so I started getting calls and so one guy called me and was like man, I you know, I could take you to Martin Orence. Man, I could have you a part of the crew, and I'm all right. The other dude me was like, I can show you how to produce and own your own content with networks, and I'm like, shit, I'm rolling with that. And so
that's what he did. Shout out to him. His dude name was Chip, and he taught me how to write. And you know, he was a producer on I Can't Get a Hill back in the day. So he knew people and so, you know, I like any business, you get to network, right, and so you build tryads, which is like somebody introduces you to a person, and so the three of y'all have a connection through the person
who introduced you. And so Chip would introduced me around town of these people and then I started like having stuff to bring them, like I got this idea and then that's dope. And then we would work and start building the ideas and he would get the meeting set. And I'm really good at pitching because I just was selling commercials and so it's crazy how your whole story lends itself to the next chapter. I was writing and selling commercials and I had to pitch thirty seconds to somebody, you.
Would do it like how when you watch it on TV and the person stands in front of the room and that was you.
Well yeah, well, I mean, I'm just trying to visit me. It'd be on like a video call with like our clients that are somewhere else, and I'm running down the schematic and it's gonna be like this, and then the little girl says that's just fad mark, and everybody like, oh right, And so pitching thirty seconds is hard as hell,
way harder than pitching thirty minutes. So now I'm getting these rooms and I'm like and then page two and they're like okay, and it's like I'm learning that, like everything I learned in that process before, I'm using it here and it's killing.
It's like God had like a whole plan, People.
Had a plan for me. And what happens is then you look up and a lot of people who are just new into the game don't have these kind of pitching skills, and then a lot of people who've been in the game don't have fresh ideas. So now here I am a person with fresh ideas and a way to pitch where I can really do it, and I'm just selling show after show. Like I looked up and I sold like eleven shows, and I'm like, oh shit, like I just keep I just sold one like two
weeks ago, you know what I'm saying. Like, I'm just saying like right, but that's what I do. And so, like, you know, it became like I'm getting more popular for this than the stand up. People are respecting me for me, and I had to Now I'm living in hollywoods I live in Detroite, Chicago. Now I'm in Hollywood. And I started doing comedy in Hollywood, and then I'm blowing up. And that was like, now we got three states where I'm good, and so, you know, blowing up in Hollywood,
you know. And then I've even done it in New York. I lived in New York for seven months, blew up in New York, and I did it in Atlanta. I went to Atlanta for a couple of months, blew up in the little Atlanta comedy scene. That was it. So then it just became like I'm good and I just need to just be like I'm good, you know what I'm saying. And so the fight was to make sure that I could still do my stand up in the midst of doing all of this producing that I've been doing.
Yeah, how do you do that?
I just be tired, you know what I'm saying.
Like, if you had to choose now between producing, writing, and your comedy out of all them, which is the job that gives you the most.
Fulfillment stand up because that's personal, right, acting because of what I can do from my family. Like when I act, you know, it's like it's that's like the big, big, big money. You know what I'm saying.
Oh, I would think selling the shows was the biggest money.
I'm selling the shows is the second biggest money. Acting is the first. Okay, yeah, Like because you just you know, like I'm talking about real acting, like not like guest starring. Like like I started on like Love Life, where I did ten episodes and it's HBO, and it's like you're number four on the call sheet, Like you're like, you know, top five priority for this HBO show. Like it's life changing kind of money. Producing is like you finally getting
six figures. You know what I'm saying, It's okay, we're doing it. And then you produce a lot you know, you can add it up. But acting is like bam, you're here. You know what I'm saying. So what I a like to do is do stand up and have them pay me like I'm acting.
Okay, well I think that that can't be too far around the corner for you.
I don't think so, but I have to you know, you got to have know what's around the corner. You know what I'm saying. But I mean the production part of it. It's just as a creative it's a little slow. I'll be like, you know, shows take two years to come out, and I'm like, I'm ready for to come out, and I'm getting older.
And you know, well, when they buy the show, why are you still waiting for it to come out? But is it not just a smooth one done, shake hand transaction or they keep you on as a writer.
So they buy the show. When you sell a show, you sell a concept, they want to buy that, right, Okay, so oh we like that, we want that. Okay, cool, we'll give you. Let's say, we'll give you two hundred grand to do that. Okay, we need the script rope, we need the Bible designed, we need to you know, the concept and all of that outlines everything, and then we'll side if we want to do this show.
After they've given you two hundred k. Yeah, okay.
So it's like that's why you got to have thick skin, because you can't be glued to it because once they say no, we're good, it's over.
What do you mean it's over?
It's over like they bought that from you.
Oh oh, meaning like it's it gets dead in the ground.
And then you can go to somebody else and say, hey, if you guys like it, you guys can pay them two hundred grand and they'll sell it to you and then you can work with me on it. Why you have to get it and turn around? But they like, we bought this and we paid for it. Yes, so it's ours, but we don't want.
It, damn. So But when you had mentioned that, you sometimes you'll be waiting around, like when is it going to drop? Why do you have that part? Like why what are you waiting for? If you've gotten paid.
Waiting to get green lid, right, you're waiting for it to.
Start, Like why do you get another check? Once it starts?
That's when you start that two hundred thousand You get that now every episode. Oh so they pay you one time for this is what you get. Now you're like, I want this ten times. Hell yeah, you know what I'm saying. I wanted twenty times. I want it for you exactly. You know what I'm saying. So that's what happens. So now it's like you get a taste and then it's gone. And so for some people that's it. Yeah, they never do that again, right, they help you budgeted it.
Good for me, it's like I need to do it over and over and over again. This show is about this and so the thing is like a lot of people don't have enough good shit to go right back to them and be all right, but check this one out. This one starts a little boy and you know, and they like, nah, you had one and it was good and that's it me. When they see me coming, they're like, oh, what do you got for a CP? You know what
I'm saying. And it's like and it bodes well for me because just because it didn't go doesn't mean that they don't respect your writing or respect how you think. So then they'll call me like, hey, these other people they sold the show, but they need help with their pitch. Or they need help with their can you you know, we'll pay you to come in and help them, and then there's money in that too.
Now I'm just curious. With everything you've learned about the entertainment business in the his and those, do you feel like you are good with managing money or do you kind of still.
Look at I don't like, I don't think. I'm just I think that I talked to my mom about this the other day, and it's like she was like, I didn't raise you to be good with money. And we have to figure out how to break that curse in our family of money just coming through us. You know what I'm saying. We need to figure out how to
build our generational wealthware. And we're doing things like we invested in some French bulldogs and now you got puppies and so you know, that's like one of our investments that we did together that we're seeing come back and dividends because it's like, wow, like this is how it goes. You know, you have to invest your money. You can't
just buy everything you like. You know what I'm saying, Because there was a point where I'm like, well, I'll sell another show and then I'll sell another show, and then I just sell another show. Oh we need that, sell another show. But then the problem is then we have a strike. Yeah, and the strike is like.
The strike is taken forever by the way.
So now it's like, oh shit, like I can't sell another show.
But even during the pandemic, were you coasting fine?
Yeah, during the pandemic, I was able to, like I still have my puppeteer fan base, so like they still like Reggie bo has a whole following and merch and all of that. But then also I just I just really got into my creative bag. Like a lot of my friends who do comedy and people who are just in the business, they need the industry. All I need is is my own setup because I have my degree in so I'm setting up my own I have my own studio, you know.
Yeah, you have your background. Is it's almost like your I definitely say I'll call it God's plan more than anything, because everything that every milestone you hit, even by holding true to what your family wanted, that level of integrity kind of blessed you indefinitely.
Yeah, Because I mean, like the skills that I got from college, the network, Like I said, I was a Kappa, so like you know, now I mean I am a new So now I got all that network plus the stuff that I really learned, and it's one of the best colleges in the world. So now it's like I have that vast network of professors who are proud of me, and I got this person who wants to do this for you, and it's just like, yeah, everything works and over. During the pandemic, I just woke up one day and
it was like, get to work. I got on Amazon, ordered the whole studio. It was like eight hundred bucks. Did some cheap like they were looking like those but they were cheap, you know what I'm saying, A couple of cameras that already had some try pods. I got a backdrop blue screen. I ordered a table and a chair and I just set it up and I was like, Hey, it's me and I'm here and I don't know what I'm doing here, but this is what I was told
to do. And now it just wow. And you know what I'm saying, Like, so.
So would you say, I mean, based on this conversation, and have you cracked the budget nutshell or like how to master your finances.
Yet yes, I have. I just you know, like it's a lot of work to undo years of being in debt, you know what I'm saying, like paying off stuff, you know, just like I'm the lighters at the end of the tunnel, you know what I'm saying, Like, you know, the lighters at the end. You have kids, and it's just like daw, they just bleed money, you know what I'm saying, Like you know, and it's just yeah, yeah.
No, I get it.
I I I got better with money after I think I was like twenty three and I got liens on all my stuff from the State of California.
And that's when I was like taxes and I was like, let me get one on one winning account. And then like really kind of asked all these questions and I started to like really sit down, like you know, usually you're handing your taxes to account you just five minutes, get in and get out. Now me, I was like, no, we're gonna teach me what I was doing wrong to end up in a situation where you know, the state is gonna repoll my car. How was the State of
California gonna repossess my car like that? Doesn't even make sense. But the State of California, I had to learn at a very young age, was way more dangerous than the irs. The irs will like make payment plans, but State was like, you pay me all my money up front, and we don't. We don't want five dollars today. We want all our money. And then when we get all our money, we remove all the lians. And that's when I was like, Okay, you know, I'm a I'm a school up and handle
my money differently. And then when I bought my first house, that was another learning lesson where it was like, wait, the bank wants to know why I was moving money from this account to this account and what was this purchase and that purchase. Because when I every time I had a business, I would mix up all my funds. I'd be like, oh, well, you know, CASHUW problems, and before you know it, after hitting my head a couple
of times. Now I may true j not just by nationality, but I am an obsessively and Darius knows that's like, I'm so good with money and I still I give out credit. I brag about it because I do believe you have really great credit. Your job in life is to gift other people with it, but also teach them. But I give away and.
I don't mind.
So when you have someone like I have an eight hundred and fifty eight FIGHTO, and I'm proud of it. But if say, if you have say seven six hundred fight oh, all I would do is say, you know, CP, give me your information. I'll add you to one of my cards. By me doing that, I'll probably give you one hundred points just off that.
Wow.
So I give out all my friends. I give them credit. I'm very invested in there, and they all call me when they're having money issues, cause I'm like, yo, there's no reason to be prideful about it. Like you see me go broke a hundred of times. But it was funny. Yesterday I bought a car.
That's business.
Yeah, but I bought a car yesterday, and afterwards I went, you know, I had to run an errand with my daughter. I was talking to a friend and I was like, man, you know the guy before me, it took so long for me. It took like thirty minutes. And he was saying, like, you know, when he buys all his vehicles, one he put it under his name. I'm like, why the f would you ever put a vehicle under your name? It's
a liability. It ruins your debt to income racio on at all this list, but one of the things I realized is like the failure to manage money and to understand credit really holds you back. The reason why I was able to buy a car with virtually nothing down, no income checks, nothing, was because I had the fight out score of f you give me my car, you know attitude and even when I said, uh.
But doesn't your score go down every time you do stuff like that.
No, so your score you have like up to four inquiries a year that you can get, but it dips your score a little bit. The things that ruin your score is really your debt to income ratio and your ability to pay off debt. So I believe in paying off all debt within thirty days, and the only debt that I like to keep is assets. And then anything that's a liability needs to go under a company because
you can write it all off. You know, like cars with the exception of Darius's new Chevy Caprice or whatever, like you could keep that car because it's appreciating, But the regular cars that depreciate. They need to be under your company. Everything needs to be under your company. You got school and then yeah, and then I also I live on a modest salary, and then I put all
my companies as anes corp. And then I draw to a draw on the profits at the end, which I think everyone swears by LLC, LLC law escorpse are the best. Like I remember my accounts for five years saying like escorp escort, but in my brain I was so ashamed. I would be like, well, they probably just wanted me to spend more money. And it was a simple filing. It didn't even cost me any money. It was they just turned the C into the S. And I was like, I saved so much money. I was like, you're so stupid.
Ho, why didn't you just tell them to do it?
But my ignorance was like was like, yeah, escorp es corp is the best way. And then I also I love this because if you're buying real estate, if you do an escorp and you set yourself as an employee if you're self employed, they count your income after tax if you are employed, which if you get on a d P under your escorp, you're employed, then you get the best of both worlds. You get to buy a home based on your income before tax, so you can
buy more home. So like there's different tricks where you're like, wait and as an as corp. You can do both. So I love it.
So yeah, I'm gonna bet suhit me up.
I love it in Darius, obviously, could you imagine being married to someone that's like, how did you spend that money?
From Detroit? We from theded Like we just we just get a dollar to spend a dollar.
That's how he is. And let me tell you something. Nothing. The second I hear been a mall, I'm like, get the out of the mall, you know, And I get it. He's he's a comic. But I'm like, if your checks were all getting written into your corp, you know, sure, But these clothes I can't. We can't do nothing with them because you're not Your paperwork isn't brand.
What do you mean? So if they were paying him to his company, then the clothes that he buys, he get everything.
So everything I buy is written off. I what I do is I put everything on my Amax. Which is a cool cheat is that most of these credit cards are breaking. Get down for you. So at the end of the year, you just get your AMX spreadsheet because they do it for you, turn it into your account, and then just write off everything on there because it breaks it down versus you having to keep tabs on it. Look this this whole podcast financial lesson. But but no,
I would love to collabse. I love sharp, I love talking about budgeting and financial literacy, and I get every time I drop a little snippet on my personal page, I'll get dams from everybody like please drop more, and I'm like, I will go. But yeah, it's definitely especially like in the state of California, if you are self employed, like to just Comedian CP, you're gonna get taxed more.
But you're on an escort, so you're being taxed right, But the goal is the liabilities go on to court assets home.
Are you stuck, Like, let's say my car is are my name? Can I just switch into my company at anytime?
No, but there's still a way. So like what I was doing, not like.
A car note like talk about a car you just cash out.
You cashed out a car in your own name. Maybe no, you got to buy that because if you buy a car cash out fifty percent right off the top is tax right off. So if you bought a car for one hundred k, fifty k.
Right off the top for my company, or it's for me, for your.
Company, for you, it's I don't think you get as many benefits. Like I just bought this car. I just switched it to my name, and the dealer had the nerve to catch a little attitude and I was just like, bru, either you switch it to my name. And then here's the funny thing. So the way insurance works, you know, it's a little tricky. So I was telling Darius at
like seven in this morning, guess what I did. So the insurance company, the dealer wanted like the insurance to come out a certain way, and they sent me a PDF. And luckily, you know the computers now you could just edit it. And they wanted to lay out a certain way. So I had the insurance, but they just wanted it to lay out without my name or Dariu's name on it. So I just went and edited the PDF and sent it to the dealer and got it approved. I was like,
I'm gangster like you. There's probably was like, what are you even talking about?
Exactly. That's that's how I get down. I would. I mean, but like, yeah, yeah, I mean.
The insurance is legit, but they want to see it laid out a certain way. It's like, Yo, I'm not even gonna argue with you. I'm not gonna argue with the insurance company. Y'all can agree, y'all don't want to talk to each other. I'm gonna edit this. What do you want? You want? My name's gone edit and send it in. And but but truthfully, a lot of people don't spend enough time talking about money and how it works.
And in the state of California, we're being taxed so hard that you have to be smart with it.
Man, I gotta get you with my wife. Man, she would love this conversation.
She would until you go to the mall and then you'd.
Be like, oh, I mean you could. I spend too much good damn time with tomorrow. Anyway, that's my problem. I need to get out of there. Yeah.
So, what advice would you give to someone coming up in the game specifically from Detroit And matter of fact, no, we're not gonna specific from Detroit, but a young person coming up in the game pursuing to be a class clown but doesn't really know what their journey is gonna be and being.
Broke so young is in there in high school?
Yeah, a young person.
I mean, if you're in high school, I would say I was, you.
Know, let's not do high school. Let's do like thirty because I think my demo's thirty.
And above got you thirty, that's even better. I would say, you know, get a YouTube channel. Start your YouTube channel and one or two subscribers all eesn't matter. Start your YouTube channels. You have a place to land your media thats not a social media platform. And then repost your stuff to your Instagram first of all, just to start right. You want to people are going to catch fire to you one day and they weren't gonna go and they're gonna want to go back and look at what you've done.
Never stop moving, Never stop moving, never stop learning. Learn everything that you need to know about what it's gonna take to make you shine. Right. So, you need to learn how to be your own cameraman. You need to learn how to light yourself. You need to learn how to like just practice like doing all of the things that that you want somebody else to do. It for you and who you want to hire and all of that. You got to do it yourself first period, Like you
have to be your first client. You have to be your first everything. Like, so don't expect people to just buy into your shit because you saying that you want to do it. Unfortunately everybody says that and everybody wants to do it. So you have to be the first person to be your first everything. You got to be your first manager. You gotta be okay with that, right, Like with the more people you get to buy in, the less you have to do it and the more
rest you can get. But in the meantime, you gotta jump. You cannot be lazy. I can't be lazy with it. You have to do it, like whatever it takes. And it's kind of like, we know what it takes, we just need somebody to tell us. But you don't need nobody to say. You know exactly what you're supposed to do.
But now, what would you say if they're like, well, I'm okay, what if I do it and a year or two years in we don't have like one hundred followers, Do I give up then? Or do I keep going?
No? Don't you know I mean like it depends on how important it is to you. Right, So, like after two years of being in it, you have enough content where you can start to assess yourself. You know, where did you see strength, Where did you see weakness? Where did you see the most success? What do people like about you the most? And then start to accentuate those things and keep going, like you don't blow up until
you blow up. Everything is practiced until then. So it's like you just you got to settle into the fact that it's going to be a journey and fall in love with the journey of it. Like, if you can't see yourself loving doing this every day, then this is probably not what you want to do, you know what I'm saying. Like, you know, if you don't want to work out and go in the gym and be buffed, and you don't want to play football, you just want to toss the ball around, go to a tailgate and play catch.
I like how you kind of did talked about it in the zoology sense, like you know, maybe you should just you know.
Get rich and get a tiger.
Get rich and get a tiger. I love that. Well, thank you so much for coming and feeding me I'm thankful to have you, thankful to know you, Thankful that my husband has someone as dope as you in his life. Shout out to Darius, and you could cook for me anytime with the way you cook. All right, just you know, add a little bit more corn. Anyways, where can guests or fans keep up with you and follow up with you?
People can follow me at Comedian CP. I'm gonna have a podcast called the CP Podcast. I would love to have you come on my podcast and talk financial literacy. That'd be so dope.
I would love to Where do you guys tap out of and Selmer? You're always welcome to use our studio. Okay, it sits here collecting dust.
But then I have everything is Comedian CP. So YouTube, Instagram, Snapchat, everything is Comedian CP. Have a Patreon you can join if you want to keep up with the podcast and be able to add to the conversation by being in a live broadcast of the podcast before it comes out to the world. And that's it, man. I have a new tour starting in Jane, where we called the Dark Side of the Moon Tour. We just finished my first tour called CP was here and so they're all like
in conjunction, like sequels of each other. So the next the part two is called Dark Side of the Moon. It is uh, the Wintertime Tour. It's gonna be dope. We're starting in DC, I think. Yeah, man, just keeping it moving, so yeah.
All right comedian CP, all right, thanks for tuning in. Check us out anywhere you get your podcasts. Peace for more eating while broke from iHeartRadio and The Black Effect, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.